New York's part in history

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CHAPTEB PjIQE

I. The Indians op New Yoek 1

II. Sir William Johnson and the Iroquois Confederacy . . 39

II Sie William Johnson And The Ie0qu0i8 Confedebact

Anyone who appreciates the part that the Iroquois Confederacy played in the history of our country, and the remarkable influence of Sir William Johnson with that confederacy, will readily see that the history of our country, and especially the history of the Colony of New York, •would be very incomplete and imperfect without some account of this strong, forceful, dominating and unusual character.

The Iroquois Confederacy was a buttress of defense that protected not only the New York frontier, but, to a large extent, that of New England and Pennsylvania as well, from the attacks of the French and their Indian allies. Without this buttress our history might very easily have been quite different from what it is. Although the early attacks of Champlain made the Iroquois the natural foes of the French, there were times in which they wavered in their loyalty to the English, and it is more than probable that they would have allied themselves with the French long before the overthrow of French power in this country, had it not been for the influence of Sir William Johnson.

Johnson was a part, and a very important part, of the early history of our state, and we cannot fully understand that history without a careful study of the part that Johnson had in it. He was born in Ireland in 1715, his father being an officer in an English cavalry regiment and his mother a sister of Sir Peter Warren of the Eoyal Navy. His parents wished him to enter either the army or the navy, but he preferred to study law, which he did. His uncle. Sir Peter Warren, took a great fancy to him and just before his nephew was ready to take his bar examinations offered him the management of a large tract of land in America, which had come to him as a dowry with his wife, who was the daughter of Stephen DeLancey. The estate was in the eastern angle formed hy the junction of the Schoharie Creek and the Mohawk River.

Young Johnson was to manage the estate as though it were his own and was given power to buy, sell or develop. He sailed for America late in the summer of 1737, and spent the winter in New York with his aunt, the wife of Sir Peter Warren, the latter being one of the wealthiest men of the colony. While here he naturally met many of the noted men of the colony and formed acquaintances who were of great value to him in later yeai-s.

In the spring of 1738 he went to take charge of his uncle's estate, which was in the heart of the Mohawk country. The only white persons there were a few Germans, mostly Indian traders. Johnson was to clear the land, manufacture to some extent, and trade with the Mohawks. To succeed, he must be on good terms with the Indians and he needed to know their language if he were to operate under the most favorable circumstances. Within two years he was able to speak both the German and the Mohawk languages, and, in a few years, he knew all the Iroquois languages or dialects so that he had no need of an interpreter. This was of great advantage to him.

For the first five years he lived at Warrensbush, a settlement that long ago ceased to exist. For two years he lived in a log hut that was as free to the Indians as to himself. This was always the case with his home, whether in the log hut at Warrensbush, the stone house at Akin, or the Hall at Johnstown. He was always honest in his dealings with the Indians, one of the very few white men who were. At his burial an old sachem said: "Sir William Johnson never deceived us." Because he was always hionest in his dealings with the Indians he had the first choice of aU the furs they had to sell and the advantage of their friendship which manifested itself in many ways.

Johnson improved his uncle's estate and sold about two-

Sib William Johnson thirds of it at a large profit, in farms of from one hundred and fifty to three hundred acres each. At the death of his uncle, Johnson inherited all the land that had not been sold. About two years after coming to this country Johnson purchased a tract of several thousand acres of land on the north bank of the Mohawk, extending from the outskirts of the present city of Amsterdam to the village of Akin. At the latter place he built a massive stone house that is still in a good state of preservation, though it has been built about one hundred and seventy-five years. It is now owned by the Montgomery County Historical Association. When the house was built there was not even a highway through the valley; now more than two hundred and fifty trains of cars pass*the house each day carrying thousands of passengers and a vast quantity of freight.

Johnson was the first Englishman to settle in the Mohawk Valley west of the vicinity of Schenectady. "When he first came to this country. New York City had only about five thousand inhabitants, Albany not more than five hundred and Schenectady was a small hamlet. At Akin, Johnson built a gristmill and a sawmill, the latter having a capacity of fifteen hundred feet of lumber a day. He did much to develop the valley. He brought over some sixty families of Scotch-Irish, gave each family a tract of land, and had comfortable cabins ready for them when they arrived. Later he induced a considerable number of German refugees to settle on his tract.

When the Mohawks made Johnson a chief they .gave him a tract of land containing nearly seventy thousand acres. It extended from Bast Canada Creek to West Canada Creek including the site of the present city of Little Falls and the village of Herkimer. This grant was confirmed by the King and was known as the "Eoyal Grant."

Johnson imported horses, cattle, sheep, and other domestic animals in order to improve the breed. He encouraged the clearing of the land and the development of the country. He accumulated what was, for that time, very great wealth and was one of the prominent men of the colony during the quarter of a century preceding the Revolution. He has, not unfitly, been called the father of the colony of New York.

The domestic life of such a man as Johnson is always a matter of interest, especially when, as in his case, the domestic and public life are so intermingled that one throws light upon the other. Soon after going to Akin, Johnson married Catherine "Weisenberg, a German girl, by whom he had three children — one son and two daughters. The son was the Sir John Johnson who was so active in the Mohawk Valley during the Revolution. One of the daughters married Sir Guy Johnson, her cousin; the other married Daniel Glaus, one of the Palatines and a noted Indian fighter.

Johnson understood the Iroquois as no other white man ever did. He knew their language, their character, their ways of living and thinking, and understood the meaning of their various acts, and manner of doing things almost as well as they did themselves. It was his business to keep the Iroquois loyal to the English, not always an easy task, for often they were neither well nor wisely treated by the colonial government and were commonly cheated by the Indian traders. There were times when the skill and ingenuity of Johnson were taxed to the utmost to pacify the natives. It is pretty certain that he would have failed on more than one occasion but for his intimate relations with the Mohawks. It is reasonably certain that his relations with Molly Brant were largely determined by the influence which that relation would give him with the Iroquois and especially with the Mohawks.

Soon after the death of his wife, Johnson made Caroline, the daughter of Chief Abraham, his housekeeper. At her death seven years later, she was succeeded by Molly Brant, the sister of the noted chief, Joseph Brant. While Johnson never married either of these women, the Mohawks regarded the relation as a lawful one, it being in accordance with their customs, but in his will Johnson speaks of "my beloved wife Catherine," and "my housekeeper Molly Brant." The latter outlived Johnson. They seem to have lived together

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very happily. Johnson always treated her with great respect and insisted that everyone else should do the same. She was a remarkable woman and never appeared to disadvantage in any society.

The Indians felt more at home with Johnson because he had an Indian woman at the head of his household than they could possibly have done otherwise. This added greatly to his influence with the Mohawks, who adopted him and made him a chief of their nation. At this time he lived the life of an Indian, wore their garb, joined in their games, attended their festivals and took part in their orgies.

Johnson acquired a tract of about twenty-six thousand acres of land in the vicinity of the present city of Joh'kstown. About 1760 he built a home there which was known as Johnson Hall. At the time of its erection it was the largest and the finest mansion west of the Hudson Eiver. The first Masonic Lodge west of Albany was organized at Johnstown and its meetings were held ia Johnson Hall, in a back room on the second floor. It was there that Brant was made a Mason. Two blockhouses were erected near the Hall, one of which is still standing.

Johnson was very fond of outdoor life. He held "sports' days" at Johnstown for his tenants. He invited the Indians to the Hall to play their games. He also held an annual fair at which he awarded many prizes.

Johnson as Indian Commissioner. — Johnson saw that the Indians were being cheated on every hand, so, when he was offered a place on the Board of Indian Commissioners, he gladly accepted. The board was made up of five members, one of whom the law required to be a clergyman. Some of the members lived so far from the Indians that they had very little interest in them; others gave very little attention to their duties. Through resignations and new appointments the board soon came to be made up of men who could be relied upon to attend to their duties and see that the Indians were treated fairly. Dishonest traders were dismissed. The sale of liquor to the Indians was forbidden. Missions and mission schools were established. At one time there were twenty-six men in the jail at Albany serving sentences for the violation of the Indian anti-liquor law.

Johnson managed the Indian affairs so well that the Governor made him sole Indian Commissioner for the colony. Johnson claimed that the Indians were generally honest and said that he had furnished hunting outfits for Indians living in the extreme western part of the state and other remote points, and that they never failed to return and pay for what had been furnished them, as soon as they were able to do so. Johnson favored furnishing the Indians with good guns, which was contrary to the custom that had been followed, saying that without good guns they could not be effective allies.

During the preparation for an invasion of Canada, Johnson advanced large sums of money from his private funds. He also advanced considerable sums at council meetings, custom making that necessary to success in dealing with the savages. At one time he had advanced nearly $50,000, a very large sum of money for those times. This the Assembly was slow to repay and unpleasant remarks were made. This was not because the members of the Assembly were personally opposed to Johnson, but because he was an appointee of a governor to whom they were opposed. When the sums advanced by him were finally repaid he resigned his office.

As soon as the Indians heard of his resignation they called a council of their chiefs and went to Albany to consult with the Governor. At this interview King Hendrick, representing the Mohawks, said :

"We have come to consult our brother Corlear (the name the Indians gave to all the governors) in relation to Colonel Johnson. We have just heard that he has resigned. When the war was breaking out, your Excellency recommended him to us and you told us that we might consider anything that he said as being said by yourself. So, as we had no hand in his appointment, we have done nothing to induce his resignation. Judge, therefore, the shock we felt when he sent us a belt of love and peace with a letter saying that he had resigned and would be our superintendent no more. We cannot express our feelings. He must come back to us. No one can take his place in our hearts. We can never learn to believe the words of anyone as we believed him. You, or if you cannot, then our Great Father, the King, must make him come back to us. We cannot get along without him.

Captain Montour, speaking for the Senecas, said:

Our nation is hard to control. There are many gbod Senecas and also many bad ones. But all love Colonel Johnson, all believe what he says, and all — good and bad alike — will listen to his words and have faith in his promises. His tongue is not forked. He always speaks with one tongu^. In peace, he was like a fertile field that raised com and pumpkins and beans. In war, he was like a tree that grew for us to bear fruit, but now seems to be falling down, though it has many roots sunk deep in the soil of our affection, our confidence and our esteem. His knowledge of our affairs, our laws, and our language, made us think he was not like other white men, but an Indian like ourselves. Not only that, but in his house is an Indian woman, and his little children are half-breeds as also I am, your Excellency knows — only I am a French half-breed and Colonel Johnson's little children are English half-breeds. We understand that he declines to return to his office. This makes us afraid you will have to appoint someone in his place who does not know us — some person who is a stranger to us and to our affairs. We, therefore, ask you to compel him to resume his office of superintendent or, if you cannot compel him yourself, to send a letter asking our Great Father, the King, to compel him. We know that he will obey the King. Please tell the King, if you write him, that we want Colonel Johnson over us, and no one else. He has keen ears and hears a great deal and what he hears he tells to us truthfully. He also has sharp eyes and sees a long way ahead, and conceals nothing from us.

With, the exception of the Iroquois, the English made

enemies of all the Indians with whom they came in contact,

, and it was due to Johnson, whom the Iroquois loved, that

they too were not antagonistic. Every effort was made to induce Johnson to resume the office of Indian Superintendent but without avail. He declared that he would have no relations with "that factious and malignant majority in the Assembly." He finally agreed to accept temporary appointments from time to time to settle special difficulties. No one was ever appointed in his place.

In the fall of 1753, when it had become apparent that the French and English would soon clash, there came alarming rumors of the presence of many French missionaries among the Senecas, and a general discontent among the western Iroquois. The Governor was so disturbed by these reports that he induced Johnson to go into the Seneca country in the early winter, a time of year that made the journey a very severe one. At the principal town of the Senecas Johnson found Captain Joncaire, a French half-breed, who bore much the same relation to the Indians in the interest of the French that Johnson did in the interest of the English. Johnson remained at Kanandaigua for a week and satisfied himself that there was no unrest among the Iroquois except in case of a few of the western Senecas at Niagara. On his return Johnson stopped at the principal Cayuga and Onondaga towns.

In 1755 Johnson was made General Superintendent of Indian Affairs for all British North America. No other Englishman ever attended as many Indian councils as he did, and he was far more influential at these councils than any other man who ever represented the colonies. Dr. Wheelock says: "I have seen at Mount Johnson, and also at Johnson Hall, sixty to eighty Indians at one time, lodging under tents on the lawn and taking their meals from tables made of pine boards spread under the trees. They were delegates from all the Indian tribes."

In 1749 Johnson arranged for and managed a great council at Albany, consisting of the governors of the New England colonies. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and representatives from the Indian tribes friendly to the English. There were present at this council seven colonial governors with their staffs, the Indian superintendents of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, and thirty Indian chiefs of high rank. Not only were the Iroquois represented hut also the Delawares, Shawnees, Mingoes, Wyandots, Adirondacks and the "River Indians." Many of the Indians brought their wives and children. Governor Clinton gave them aU new clothes and gaudy ornaments. Never had the Indians received such an ovation. Rarely had Albany witnessed such a sight. The council was very successful and the Indians returned to their homes pronounced allies and friends of the English.

Again in 1754, late in June, there met at Albany d^egates from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland to form what may be regarded as the First Colonial Congress. They were to consider plans for acting together in the approaching war. There were delegates present from the Six Nations, the Delawares and the River Indians. A resolution was passed calling upon the King to appoint Governor Shirley of Massachusetts commander-in-chief of the colonial forces. It was agreed that the colonies should raise and maintain a force of twenty-five thousand men. It was also agreed that Virginia and the Carolinas would be regarded as doing their full share if they defended their own frontiers. Three commissioners were appointed to go to England and present the situation to the King and his ministers, and ask that at least twelve thousand regulars be sent to this country, as well as a fleet strong enough to blockade the St. Lawrence and cut off all communication between France and Canada. The Indians agreed to furnish a thousand picked warriors if Johnson were made their commander-in-chief, and to raise six hundred additional warriors to defend Oswego against any attack by the French. The congress adjourned subject to the call of Governor Shirley.

In 1755 General Braddock summoned a council of colonial governors to meet with him at Alexandria, Virginia. All the colonies except South Carolina and Georgia were represented either by their governors or their lieutenant-governors. Johnson and Franklin were present by special invitation. At this meeting Johnson was appointed General Superintendent of Indian Affairs for all British North America. A plan of campaign was agreed upon. Johnson was to lead a movement against Ticonderoga and Crown Point.

On Johnson's return home he summoned a council of the Iroquois and annoiinced his appointment as Indian Commissioner. The Indians were greatly delighted and the news spread like wildfire. Within ten days, more than a thousand Indians had gathered at Mount Johnson, the largest number that had ever met with a white man for the purpose of counseling with him. Johnson was taxed to his utmost to feed this great number of people and had to call upon his well-todo neighbors for twenty miles around for help. The council was a great success. The Indians promised to raise a thousand warriors who were to be undfer the command of King Hendrick. An account of this expedition, as well as all the military movements with which Johnson was connected, will appear in connection with the story of the long struggle between France and England for the control of North America.

In 1744 Johnson established a trading post at Oghwaga on the Susquehanna near the present village of "Windsor in Broome County. Here he was free from the competition that he would have had to meet on the northern or western frontier, or any point on Lake Ontario, or on the western trail. Oghwaga was on the great southern trail which was made more popular by the establishment of this post. It was a very important post during the border wars. The village of Oghwaga had been in existence for two hundred years before Johnson established his trading post there. At this time it had about one hundred lodges that, in character, were much above the average Indian dwellings. The population was made up of representatives of every Iroquois tribe. The Indians of this village are oi:ten spoken of as a distinct tribe, probably because they had lived by themselves so long a time. The name of the village is spelled in many different ways as is commonly the case with Indian names of places. The reason is clear enough. The Indians had no written language and there were several languages and a great number of dialects. The whites learned the names by sound and then attempted to represent these sounds. With each language, and it might be each dialect, the sound would differ. Then some came to us through the English, others through the Dutch or French, so there could hardly help being a great confusion.

In applying for a license to trade at Oghwaga Johnson said: "I wish to create this trading post not any more for the prpfits it may bring me than to show by actual example that trade with the Indians can be conducted honestly as well as any other commercial business." «

"Within a few years Johnson drove out of business a horde of rascals who had been robbing the Indians of the Susquehanna Valley, and the territory tributary to it. Speaking of the treatment of the Indians, Parkman says: "The Five Nations were robbed by land speculators, cheated by traders and feebly supported in their constant wars with the French."

In writing to Governor Clinton in 1744, Johnson said: "You can make a pretty good and generally faithful fellow of an Indian by simply treating him fairly in business and helping him along now and then when his natural indolence, or improvidence, or bad luck, has brought him to straits."

In June, 1748, Governor Clinton appointed Johnson Colonel-in-Chief of the Albany County militia with full power to arrange matters as he chose. His reorganization of military affairs was so effective that no change was made till the Revolution. At that time Albany County included all the colony of New York north and west of the counties of Dutchess and Ulster, and the whole of the present state of Vermont, making a great territory to be protected from the attacks of the French and the Canadian Indians.

A brief review of the conditions existing at that time will make clearer the difficulties with which Johnson had to contend. In 1752 the adult white male population of Canada, including the troops stationed there, was less than twenty thousand. At the same time the adult white male population of the English colonies was fully two hundred thousand — ten times that of Canada — ^yet with this great disparity of numbers, it was many years before the English were able to drive the French out of the country even with the aid of many thousand English regulars. There were reasons for this. The English did not get on well with the Indians. They coveted their lands. They established colonies on the land that once belonged to, and was still occupied by, the natives. These settlements were growing more and more numerous. On the other hand, the French did not colonize to any great extent. They simply garrisoned Canada. The French mingled freely with the Indians, were friendly to them, and many of them took Indian wives. These things were not true in the case of the English. Consequently, in all the struggles between the French and the English, the former had the active support of all the Indian tribes, with the exception of the Iroquois, and would in the end have had theirs also but for the influence of Johnson. "With the support of the Iroquois the French would have been more likely to have driven the English out of the country than to have been driven out by them. The influence of the French half-breeds was very great. They were more effective in warfare than even the French regulars. They were to be found in every tribe and were scattered throughout the whole country east of the Mississippi and sometimes even farther west, and they were exceedingly loyal to France. The influence of the Jesuits was a tremendous force which, of course, was always exerted in the interest of the French. Against all these influences Johnson had to contend.

There was a controversy between Johnson and Shirley as to the appointment of the former as Indian Commissioner, Shirley claiming to have been the means of his appointment and therefore his superior, but this controversy was ended when, in 1756, the Crown directly appointed Johnson "Agent, Sole Superintendent of the Six Nations and all other Indians inhabiting British territory north of the Carolinas and the Ohio River. ' ' He was given a salary of £600 and a like sum for expenses.

When the English lost Oswego the Six Nations sent a large delegation to the Governor of Canada for the purpose of making peace. They claimed that they had agreed to help the English only in case the latter prosecuted the war vigorously, which they had utterly failed to do. The Six Nations had some reason for thinking that the French were to be the victors and that they would be obliged to make peace with them, and that it would be the part of wisdom to make it early when they would probably be able to make better terms. Braddock had been disastrously defeated by a force much smaller than his own. Shirley, Loudon, Winslow and Abercrombie had all failed. The last, with the largest, finest and best equipped army that this continent had ever seen, was not only beaten by a force less than one-third as large as his own, but he abandoned a great stretch of territory to the French which he might easily have held. Then came the affair of the cowardly Webb. So matters went on for two or three years, the "gloomiest, dreariest years in the history of the British Empire. Corruption and imbecility seemed to have joined hands to mismanage the affairs of the empire." Why should not the Six Nations have felt that the future belonged to the French?

After the loss of Oswego the barrier which the Six Nations had interposed was withdrawn. The frontier was exposed to the fury of the Canadian Indians, as the Six Nations were neutral and indifferent. Streams of hostile savages were on every hand and numerous murders were committed. Men were shot down within a stone's throw of Schenectady and small war parties hovered around Mount Johnson hoping to secure Johnson or his scalp.

Johnson never gave up hope though of all the Six Nations only the Mohawks had longer any feeling of loyalty to the English. Sir William summoned the Six Nations to meet him at Fort Johnson on the 10th of June. All the nations except the Oneidas and Tuscaroras were represented. The great influence of Johnson enabled him to overcome the effect of the stupidity of the English commanders and the machinations of the French, and win back the loyalty of the Confederacy.

These were troublesome times for Johnson but he did not despair. In a letter to the Duke of Cumberland, which Johnson requested the Duke to show to his father, the King, he said: "But, beside all other ill effects of our reverses during these two years past, is the very important consideration, that they have weakened our alliance with the Six Nations, almost to the breaking point. The Indian respects nothing so much as power and success and nothing so little as apparent weakness and reverses."

In the fall of 1758, after the turn of the tide in favor of the English, a number of the Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga chiefs invited Johnson to meet with them in a grand council at Onondaga Castle, the capital of the Confederacy. This Johnson declined to do but, in turn, invited them to meet with him at Mount Johnson. They accepted his invitation and the bond between them and Johnson was again strengthened.

The surrender of Montreal in September, 1760, closed the French and Indian War. Here, again, the prudence and sagacity of Johnson made themselves felt. He knew that the English would make a great effort to get control of the fur trade of the northwest. He feared that an effort would be made to disturb the relations between the Indians and the French missionaries and that such a movement might arouse the distrust and, possibly, the animosity of the Indians, and that under such circumstances the French priests might use their great influence to foment trouble. Therefore, he urged that the existing relations be disturbed as little as possible and that the daily life of the Indians be allowed to go on as before. This advice was followed with the result that the French soon became loyal and faithful British subjects.